Motor vehicle type approval is the method by which motor vehicles, vehicle trailers and systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles achieve Type approval in Europe.
National Small Series Type Approval - the key advantages of this scheme are that some technical requirements may be reduced in comparison with ECWVTA; however, the number of vehicles that can be manufactured are limited.
Individual Vehicle Approval
The European Commission shall adopt amendments to this Directive which are necessary to technical requirements for small series vehicles, vehicles approved under the individual approval procedure and 'special purpose vehicles'. ECE Regulations to which the Community has acceded and which are listed in Part I of Annex IV and in Annex XI of the frame Directive are part of the EC type-approval of a vehicle in the same way as the separate directives or regulations. They shall apply to the categories of vehicles listed in this Annexes. When the Community has decided to apply on a compulsory basis a UNECE Regulation for the purpose of EC vehicle type-approval in accordance with Article 4 of Decision 97/836/EC, the annexes to the Frame Directive shall be amended as appropriate in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 40.The UNECE Regulations listed in Part II of Annex IV are recognised as being equivalent to the corresponding separate directives or regulations in as much as they share the same scope and :wikt:subject|subject matter. Where the Community has decided to applya new UNECE Regulation or a UNECE Regulation as amended, Part II of Annex IV shall be amended as appropriate. Automotive EC Directives and ECE Regulations require third party approval - testing, certification and production conformity assessment by an independent body. Each member state is required to appoint an Approval Authority to issue the approvals, and a Technical Service to carry out the testing to the Directives and Regulations. An approval issued by one Authority will be accepted in all the Member States. If a vehicle is produced in a very small quantity, single EU Member States can grant exception on a discretionary basis, however the validity of the Type Approval is limited to the boundaries of those Nations which concede to it. Cornerstones of the Type Approval process are:
Application by the vehicle or component manufacturer
Testing by a technical service
Granting of the approval by an Approval Authority
Conformity of Production by the manufacturer in agreement with the Approval Authority
Certificate of Conformity by the manufacturer for the end-user
A particular country’s Type Approval may consist of one or more of the following forms:
Component Type Approval ─ approval of a component that may be fitted to any vehicle
System Type Approval ─ approval of a set of components or a performance feature of a vehicle that can only be tested and certified in an installed condition
Whole Vehicle Type Approval ─ approval of a vehicle in its entirety
There are multiple methods of type-approval:
multi-stage Type Approval: a procedure whereby one or more Member States certify that, depending on the state of completion, an incomplete or completed type of vehicle satisfies the relevant administrative provisions and technical requirements of this Directive
step-by-step Type Approval: a vehicle approval procedure consisting in the step-by-step collection of the whole set of EC type-approval certificates for the systems, components and separate technical units relating to the vehicle, and which leads, at the final stage, to the approval of the whole vehicle
*mixed Type Approval: means a step-by-step Type Approval procedure for which one or more system approvals are achieved during the final stage of the approval of the whole vehicle, without it being necessary to issue the EC Type Approval certificates for those systems
single-step Type Approval: a procedure consisting in the approval of a vehicle as a whole by means of a single operation
EC Whole Vehicle Type Approval is to prevent trade barriers, and at the same time guarantee the level of safety and restricted environmental influence of a vehicle. Thanks to that, the car can be registered in each European member state without additional national tests or approval. This harmonisation results in reduced costs and lead time for the manufacturer, importer as well as the consumer. Mandatory compliance date for ECWVTA for M1 vehicles was 2009-04-29. However cars that already have an ECWVTA but are imported from non EC countries often need to be re-approved when entering the EC. In the United Kingdom, this function is performed by the Vehicle Certification Agency. This body has the power to issue International Organization for Standardization certifications.
